How SIP can optimize VoIP phone systems

This post is part of an ongoing series that will look to answer commonly asked customer questions.

Question: What is SIP and how can I use it to save more money?

Answer: SIP Trunking is a highly technical business element that can be misunderstood by company decision-makers. It stands for "signaling communication protocol," which is widely used for controlling multimedia communication sessions that operate over Internet Protocol networks. That can include VoIP phone systems, video conferencing and instant messaging and works for both single and multi-channel calls.

An SIP Trunk is used in conjunction with an IP-PBX and can be a replacement for PRI or analog circuits. It provides increased reliability and is cheaper than analog circuits while maintaining the same service quality that businesses expect from line quality. It is because of this that many companies are starting to invest in this method.

This has already been seen, as a recent Illume consulting report found that by the end of 2012, the year-on-year SIP market saw a 60 percent growth. There are no signs that this is slowing anytime soon.

"In the coming year we expect to see more focus on what applications can be layered on top of a SIP trunk, and how Services Providers can really address Hybrid Hosted & SIP environments and bring benefits of Unified Communications to both traditional PBX & hybrid customer scenarios," Illume said in its report.

Any company that is using a VoIP system would be wise to also invest in SIP Trunking. The two systems were created to work with each other and can optimize business communication.

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